Dan

Pretty much where I am. Underachievement is all Aiyawatt knows. Generally you can calculate the level of ability in our squad and then knock about 10 points off it. Cifuentes will start well then get fed up. Pretty certain of that.

Should be 3-0 minimum. We have lucked out enormously getting this fixture. Even I think we'll win comfortably. To lose it would be on a par with Newport for me.

What on earth is it actually going to take for him to leave?

Southampton have sold (in Euros) Sulemana 17mil Onuachu 5.7mil Amo-Ameyaw (who?!?!) 7mil And are about to sell Bednarek for about 9mil. Off the back of getting TWELVE POINTS in the Premier League. Our squad isn't good but please don't tell me that this lack of movement is an inevitability. You have quotes from Iversen and Praet to the tune that we play hardball, often unnecessarily. Stop giving this club a single bit of benefit of the doubt. How many times do they have to get it wrong? Everyone's default position at this point should be assuming they've fvcked up until they've proven they haven't. Certainly is here.

There won't be a lot of movement in January. It will be next to nothing again.

£31mil raised from the second worst team in Premier League history. But it's impossible to sell a single one of our players apparently. Absolutely sick to death of Rudkin.

You get what you deserve in the end. We will only continue to slide. Clubs like Norwich, West Brom etc... will be the next to pass us (or we fall past them, whichever applies). There's this institutional delusion at Leicester that it will just magically get better. The penny may drop after it's far too late. It isn't just us. We are very similar to Manchester United - they won't get good any time soon either. Other clubs have gotten smarter and we still have 'Jon Rudkin' as our main football person. You get what you deserve.

It was entirely predictable. Plenty towards the end of last season seemed to think we would get a big overhaul in the summer. It didn't happen in 2023 to the level it should've done so it was never going to happen this time around. There's no incentive for players to leave here. No serious demands on performance yet as good a wage as you can get outside of Saudi Arabia. Add in a director of football who is demonstrably utterly useless at moving players on. The absolute worst in the business. Sell before we buy, but we can never actually sell. Cifuentes will start well here because the majority of managers do, there's a bit of a point to prove. We have a relatively kind opening few fixtures. He will cotton on to what he's working under and lose interest / desire. He's got previous for it and that was under less inept people than ours. Bookmark it.

Their insecurity is brilliant.

He's right footed.

Even when we buy cheap we still find a way to overpay.

The ones who don't get the job I'd imagine.

It's impossible to sell these crap players apparently.

The biggest takeaway. Any of my slagging is aimed at the dross players. Cifuentes will be judged on how he treats them. Such an unlikeable side.

Really is bleak. Said late last season you'll have 8 of last years team start our first game. I'd say it's now very likely to be 11. Life under Top and Rudkin for you - stale.

Never really thought of it like this but you might be onto something. He doesn't score enough that's for sure.

He's the first one I'd pick as well. Says a lot about the others.

We are just fundamentally weak under Aiyawatt.. We're dictated to rather than crafting our own way.

Problem is even if they're 'OK' in the Championship we've seen what they're about in the Premier League. Given they're mostly on Premier League wages we need them out. You can't trust the club to do the right thing - look what happened with Vestergaard. A disaster signing for two years, looks alright in a league he 'should' be miles above, does fairly well, we go and hand him another three year contract. Whenever you follow a flow chart on us it always goes back to us doing something stupid and damaging. It's why it's basically impossible to get excited.

I had fears for Lens the fact they only managed to win 3-0. As it turned out they didn't have a great season.

Even El Khannouss himself though - he's a good player but he doesn't score many, and this was also the case in Belgium where he was in a relatively strong team. Our central midfielder goal tallies are frankly an embarrassment.

We're in for a bit of a surprise I think. Squad is weaker than the one we had two years ago, substantially fewer goals in the team, plenty of players who had fresh starts at the time are now part of the deadwood. Add that to midtable form for the last third of the season. Wouldn't be surprised at all if we're in for a rude awakening - particularly as the clubs MO is just 'do nothing and hope for the best'. You can get away with it when you're blatantly a cut above, it will eventually catch us - could be this time around.

Remarkable how slow it's selling regardless of their arrangements. I really wonder if all credit in the bank has been used up.

Agree - therefore don't bother. It's one thing overpaying for someone we need. Neither manager valued him above around fourth choice at all. An absolutely terrible deal.

I don't read too much into friendly performances generally but the Lens performance was so drastically bad that you couldn't ignore it. A week before the new season and we served that up - I was about 90% sure we'd go down after watching that. About as dreadful a 90 minutes as I've seen from a supposedly professional outfit.